…. Every European country has a privacy law, as do Canada, Australia and many Latin American countries. The United States remains a holdout: We have separate laws that protect our health records and financial information, and even one that keeps private what movies we rent. But there is no law that spells out the control and use of online data.

It would be tempting to say that history and culture on this side of the Atlantic make privacy a non-issue. That’s not exactly the case. Privacy has always mattered in American law and to American sensibilities, but in a different way.